


Revealing Conversations

by afteriwake



Series: Black Sheep [3]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-09
Updated: 2015-09-09
Packaged: 2018-04-19 21:02:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4760918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock goes to visit Molly at the path lab after the events at Magnussen’s home so that they can talk and he can tell her most of the truth about Devon, but the conversation starts off on an interesting note when he finds Molly is considering rekindling her relationship with Tom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Revealing Conversations

**Author's Note:**

> So the whole Tom & Molly thing has a purpose, originally inspired by **bkclarooftoplovenestforlife** positing the question "[What if Tom is Moran](http://mae-jones.tumblr.com/post/126943623268/weird-thought)?" When I reblogged it on Tumblr my friend **mae-jones** said she didn't want to see it to be canon unless (and I quote) "Molly knew all along and was recruited by Mycroft or something to bring him down." I had originally asked **bkclarooftoplovenestforlife** if I could write fic about it and she got excited about the addition to her question and **mae-jones** said I could, hence this addition to the series. So this story is setting up the underlying plot of what's going on in the series for at least a part of it.

Sherlock went into the pathology lab in a rather contrite manner a few days after he’d last seen Molly. Wiggins had had to borrow some equipment from her, and one thing had led to another and she’d figured out their plan. He’d sworn her to secrecy but he could tell she hadn’t liked it. But he’d told her as much about the situation as he could, and he’d made Mary promise him to tell her the rest. By now that conversation should have happened and so he could be honest and truthful with her.

Well, at least partially. He wasn’t sure if Devon would want her knowing the entire truth about him, but she could learn some of it.

He made his way farther in and saw she was on her mobile. “All right,” she was saying. “I understand. If he calls me again…” She bit her lip slightly. “Yes, immediately. Bye.” That was a curious call, he realized. He cleared his throat and she looked up, giving him a grin. “Hi, Sherlock.”

“Hello,” he said slowly. “What was that about?”

“What was what about?” she asked, a small sense of panic flitting momentarily across her face.

He nodded to her mobile. “That conversation.”

She pulled more of her lower lip between her teeth and then rubbed at the area where her engagement ring had been. “I…had a call from Tom, on Christmas,” she said. “He wanted to get back together with me. Said it was all his fault, that he’d work harder, try harder. He wanted another chance.”

He studied her. She wasn’t lying, but there was more to all of this. She wasn’t being entirely truthful. “And what did you tell him?” he asked.

“That I had to think about it,” she said. “But perhaps it could work, with changes.”

“I see,” he said quietly. He moved to a stool near the one she was on. “Do you want to rekindle your romance with him?”

“I don’t know,” she said, looking down. “There were problems. I mean, there were loads of little ones, and some big ones. But we could work them out, I suppose. And he does care. And…I care about him.”

He found it peculiar that she didn’t say she loved him. She had never actually said she loved him, he’d realized, in the entire time he’d been around her while she’d been with him. “Is that enough, though?” he asked.

“It will have to be,” she said, shrugging as she lifted her head up slightly and started to get to work. “It’s not like I have other options.”

He studied her for a few minutes. He’d occasionally had the barest fleeting thoughts of having a normal relationship, perhaps with Molly, but he was far too damaged to be any good to her. And she deserved better than him anyway. If he wanted to be perfectly honest, she deserved better than the Meat Dagger as well. Perhaps this time the imbecile would learn and correct himself and treat Molly the way she deserved to be treated. He set his forearms on the edge of the worktop and decided to change the subject. “Have you spoken to Mary yet?

Molly nodded. “She told me everything that you figured out, which I gather is slightly more than John knows.” Then she paused in what she was doing. “It feels strange, knowing more than what John knows about his own wife.”

“That was his choice,” Sherlock said. “He had the drive, he could have looked at any point.”

“I think it’s quite romantic, in a way. Having this opportunity to know everything about someone, every last detail that they’re terrified to share, and choosing to know them as they’ve made themselves known to you.”

“I think it’s stupidity, but John always was a romantic at heart,” he said. He turned to face her. “Are you still willing to be friendly with her?”

“Yes,” she said, giving him a quick glance with her brows furrowed slightly. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“There is the fact she shot me,” he said, feeling slightly hurt that she was willing to overlook that so easily.

“Well, you and John are friendly with her so why shouldn’t I be?” she said with a shrug. “And besides, the way she described it, she knew exactly what she was doing to keep from killing you.”

Sherlock narrowed his eyes slightly and pulled his arms away, crossing them against his chest. “Did she now.”

“Well, she also knew you were smart enough to know how to react,” she said, continuing to work. “I mean, you are brilliant, you know how to react well in a crisis.”

“I only lived because of you,” he said quietly, and then his eyes widened when he realized he’d said it out loud.

Her movements slowed as she turned her whole body to face him. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“The you that resides in my mind palace,” he said after a moment. “You walked me through how not to die. Well, mostly you. Mycroft and that twat Anderson helped a bit.”

“There’s a me in your mind palace?” she asked curiously.

He nodded slowly. “A version of you exists there who I turn to for medical knowledge and cold hard logic, to use as a sounding board sometimes…” He didn’t mention the version that had comforted him when he’d been gone, who’d reminded him of why he was doing what he was doing. She resided more in his heart than his head and made brief appearances in his mind palace. “I have others who do similar things at times.”

“That’s very fascinating,” she said with a smile. She turned back to her work. “Well, I’m just glad the me there could help save your life. I’d have missed you if you’d died.”

“Even though you were mad at me that morning?” he asked.

“Even so. Especially since my last words to you would have been words of anger. I would have regretted that very much.”

“Well, I’m glad she kept me alive too, then,” he said, feeling a bit warmer inside. “Do you think that perhaps today we could talk? There are some things I would like to tell you about. Some things concerning me and my past.”

“Do I need to go anywhere to view anything?” she asked.

“No,” he said.

“Then why don’t you bring food here and we can eat in the office and go through things on my lunch?” she asked. “Do you know what my usual Thai order is?”

“I’m fairly sure I do,” he said.

“Then get that and meet me in my office at…” She glanced at the watch on her wrist and then looked up at him. “Half past noon and then I’m all yours for an hour, all right?”

He nodded. “All right. Thank you, Molly.”

“Don’t mention it,” she said, giving him a warm smile. He gave her a small but genuine one back and then left the path lab. Hopefully if she did rekindle her romance with the Meat Dagger he wouldn’t insist on her giving up her friendship with him, otherwise he might have to take steps. Molly Hooper was quite dear to him, and he was rather going to insist she stay in his life.


End file.
